After the Storm
by brennooth
Summary: What could happen after the Callie/Arizona fight...


"I like you... a lot". She had really said that to her. And she'd said that she was not going to leave things like this. Like this. What had she meant by that?

"If you change your mind, then…" Then what? She'd never found out. It was then that Callie had shown up out of the blue. That awkward moment, in which she hadn't known how to act around those two women. On her left her wife, on her right the girl she'd just cheated with. And then Callie had noticed the ring. Her wedding ring, pinned to Lauren's scrub top. Arizona must've grabbed the wrong one back in the on call room, when she was getting dressed in a hurry.

Lauren had come up with an explanation while she just stood there, drowning in guilt. And then she'd seen it. Callie listened to this explanation and then realization had hit her. She'd known what happened, where Arizona had been the whole time.

When Arizona had finally managed to look at her wife, she'd been close to tears. She had really messed things up.

When Callie had stormed off, she had trouble keeping up with her. They'd had this fight before. About her leg. About how Callie always acted as though she'd been there with her, heard Meredith cry for Lexie, heard her scream in pain. She had been mad at her. So mad that she'd told her she'd cut off her leg as well to even the score. She had told her that Callie herself hadn't lost anything although she knew she had lost Mark, the father of their child. And then there was that one thing Callie had said that broke her heart, but she could do nothing about it.

"Apparently I lost you."

Now she was sitting there, in a hallway, next to a door she wasn't sure she should knock on. Tears were streaming down her face. She really had ruined her marriage.

They'd fought again when Arizona got home. Callie had her suitcase ready. She'd told her that she couldn't have her in the same flat with her. Arizona had told her that she had nowhere to go, but she had hurt Callie so much that she didn't seem to care anymore. She understood even though it broke her heart. She'd made a mistake. She'd hurt Callie and she felt bad about it. But then again she didn't.

Whenever she looked at Lauren, she felt alive again. She didn't feel like the person who survived a plane crash. She didn't feel like the person who lost one leg. She wasn't that person when Lauren was around. She made her feel good, important, even wanted. Lauren didn't reduce her to the things that had happened to her. With Lauren she could be herself. So no, she didn't feel bad about that. She didn't feel bad for wanting to feel alive again. She felt bad about the fact that it involved hurting Callie's feelings.

She had told her that she was allowed to lose a little bit of control. That's all she'd needed to let herself go, to open up to that beautiful green eyed person standing next to her. All day she'd felt guilty about letting herself go, she was quite certain she had hurt Lauren at least a little bit by being so cold to her and pushing her away.

She should get up and knock. She was so lost in her memories that she'd lost track of time. The noise of a door being opened startled her and she immediately wiped away the tears that were streaming down her face. Arizona didn't want anyone to see her like this.

"Arizona?" that beautiful voice. She closed her eyes. She didn't look up to meet those beautiful green eyes that were staring at her in confusion.

"What are you doing here? How did you even know where to find…?" Lauren kept asking carefully. She took a step towards the blonde sitting on the floor next to her door. She only stopped when Arizona looked up at her, her eyes red from crying. She was a mess and they both knew it. Lauren sat down next to her, put her hand on Arizona's arm.

"She kicked me out. I told her everything, Lauren. I told her and we had this huge fight and… I have nowhere else to go," she started, her voice getting faster and whinier to the end.

"I'm sorry," she looked at the floor, her hand still resting on Arizona's arm.

"It's not your fault. It was my decision. I made a mistake. But… no I didn't. It wasn't a mistake and. I'm sorry for treating you the way I did."

"Come on," Lauren said, slowly standing up again, dragging Arizona onto her feet. "You're going to stay with me and get some sleep. It'll be okay."

Not letting go of Arizona's arm, Lauren helped the blonde inside and closed the door behind them.

* * *

**Note:** Since some of you asked for it, _A Truly Perfect Storm_ is some sort of sequel to this story.


End file.
